‘Arc will be an amazing, innovative and inspirational experience’

I hope most people have seen our joint proposal for the amazing glass viewing cabin Arc which would fly 42 passengers at a time, 69 metres above the rooftop of We The Curious.

Arc will be an amazing, innovative and inspirational experience that will bring a totally new perspective on what We The Curious already does so well.

But Arc is also key to our recovery after what has been a really difficult year. While we’ve been lucky enough to have recently secured some grant funding which will help us enormously, closing for a full year has had a major impact on us, with significant redundancies and a loss of £3.4m revenue.

We now need a really robust and sustainable way out of this difficult situation, and Arc is key to that. It would attract an additional 250,000 paying visitors to harbourside, who would spend an estimated £13.3m each year.

Not everyone knows that We The Curious is an educational charity – we have a fantastic community engagement programme welcoming 54,000 school children and 6,500 of Bristol’s most under-represented residents every year.

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Arc has committed to reinvesting ten per cent of its profits into free and subsidised tickets, and supporting our social inclusion work, which means we can do even more to ensure everyone can access and be inspired by We The Curious. Arc and We The Curious will be accessible for everyone in Bristol.

The additional spending would also support staff working in the harbourside bars, cafes and restaurants – many of whom are young people, who have been particularly hard-hit by the economic impact of the pandemic.

The council’s economic development and education officers recognise the opportunity Arc brings. I agree fully with the director for education and skills who said “Arc could provide many educational opportunities for art, history and geography as well as STEM subjects…and develop a local sense of belonging and identity”.

I also fully agree with the regeneration & economic team at the council who said Arc will “help diversify, strengthen and increase the tourism/leisure offer within the city centre…critical to supporting the city’s recovery from Covid-19”.

We The Curious CEO Donna Speed. Photo: Ailsa Fineron

Of course, I am hugely disappointed officers are recommending the application is refused. There is an important balance to be found between protecting our heritage assets, and to creating and reinventing an exciting and stimulating place to be…one which nurtures and encourages curious minds.

One of the many fans of Arc is the Very Reverend Mandy Ford, Dean at Bristol Cathedral. The impact on the cathedral is a key part of the reason the application is recommended for refusal. But I totally agree with Mandy, who said “a flight in Arc will show a fabulous new view of the cathedral to visitors and the people of Bristol, which…will become a vital addition to our promotion of the cathedral, its history and its mission.

“The cathedral has successfully navigated 860 years of change and we need to look to the future, embracing whatever the 21st century will bring – welcoming beneficial changes like Arc as well as building resilience against damaging changes like the virus. We strongly encourage the council to approve this application”.

Main photo: CMYK

Read more: Plans for new attraction above Bristol’s harbourside set for refusal